Page 12 - February 2021 SARIZONA

America continued from page 10...
many different melodies over the years the one we are familiar with was published in 1910.
“O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!”
Now on to “God Bless America.” Compared to the others, this is a fairly recent patriotic song written by composer Irvin Berlin in 1918 during World War I and revised by him in 1938. The first verse is not generally sung these days but it was certainly relevant in 1918.
“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land
that's free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:
God bless America, land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with the light from above;
From the mountains, to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home”
“Defense of Fort M’Henry,” was a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key in 1814 after he witnessed (from the decks of a British ship!) the nighttime bombing and shelling of Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, by other British ships during their attack on September 13-14, 1814. During the early morning hours of September 14th the fort’s garrison flag (30’ by 42’) was raised signaling an American victory. The poem later became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner” and was set to the tune of yet another British song: “To Anacreon in Heaven.”
“O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars
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through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were
so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting
in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
“The Star-Spangled Banner” through a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931, was proclaimed our official
national anthem.
By now you are wondering if we in America don’t have any original patriotic tunes. How about “Yankee- Doodle Dandy”? Nope—although it is the current state song of Connecticut. You may remember the lyrics:
Yankee Doodle went to town, Riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it macaroni. Chorus -
Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, Mind the music and the step,
And with the folks be handy
Now, this probably goes without saying, but what does the National Flag Code say about etiquette when our national anthem is being played?
“Individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note; members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute in the manner provided for individuals in uniform; and all other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, and men not in uniform, if applicable, should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed.”
Oh, and your homework is to find out why Francis Scott Key was on that British ship!